Kings survive a quick change

Rookie goalie Jonathan Quick has only himself to blame for the hectic final 12 minutes as the Kings outlasted the Colorado Avalanche, 6-5, on Wednesday night.

Quick’s giveaway goal helped the Avalanche trim a four-goal deficit to one.

Quick was about to pass the puck to his defensemen on his right and never saw Brian Willsie, who intercepted the puck and put it into the net for his first goal of the season to pull Colorado to within 6-4.

“It would have been a pretty nice assist if the guy was on my team,” Quick said. “Unfortunately, he wasn’t. He made a nice play and nice shot. The team bounced back. They responded after they scored that fifth goal and they played great defensively. That kind of took a little bit of pressure off me.”

After Cody McLeod’s goal 90 seconds later made the score 6-5, the Avalanche had numerous chances to tie, but Quick made several nice saves.

“It’s a great game for a rookie goaltender to deal with what’s going on: the emotion in the game, the opposing team jamming the net and whacking away at him,” Kings Coach Terry Murray said. “He’ll grow from this.”

Colorado pulled its goalie with a minute left to no avail. Ryan Smyth’s shot in the waning seconds was wide of the net, and the Kings celebrated their first two-game winning streak since Dec. 11-13.

“We made a couple of bad mistakes. It was a little nervous, but I think we responded pretty well,” said the Kings’ Alexander Frolov, who scored twice.

The Kings chased struggling goalie Peter Budaj with a three-goal onslaught in the second period.

Frolov’s power-play goal broke a 1-1 tie. Nineteen seconds later, Jack Johnson’s one-timer made it 3-1. Then Dustin Brown picked up a loose puck in front of Budaj, skated behind the net and passed it to Jarret Stoll, who put it high over Budaj.